The past decade of 2000 to 2009 was truly dreadful for America. We had the 911 attacks, a war in Iraq, hurricane Katrina, a stock market crash and a financial/economic collapse unlike anything since the Great Depression.

However, this perception of an awful decade is from an American perspective. In China the decade was different. China experienced unparalleled economic growth during the past decade. Hundreds of millions of Chinese saw their standard of living rise dramatically while at the same time the American standard of living declined.

This was not supposed to happen to America. During the past decade we had a conservative, evangelical Christian in President Bush and conservatives in firm control of Congress and the Supreme Court. Ideally, God should have blessed our nation because our leadership reflected God’s will. As the Bible says:

Psalm 33:12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

It is believed by many Christians that God will judge a nation for its sins, and disasters are God’s retribution. An example evangelists often use is the view that AIDS is God’s punishment on homosexuality.

So what went wrong? Why all these terrible events during the decade of the Bush presidency, one of the most conservative and godly presidents we ever had? Why did a non-Christian nation like China prosper at the same time? Has God withdrawn His protection and abandoned America?

Here is a thought. Perhaps conservative values are not automatically God’s values. Yes, this is a startling concept. But how else to explain the worst of times coinciding with the most conservative of times?

Invading Iraq seemed mostly like a political stunt to increase politicians’ popularity after 911. The Bible talks about good stewards but nobody bothered to do much when Katrina hit New Orleans. Our economic collapse was founded on conservative laissez-faire principles. Conservatism seemed to relish venomous partisanship dividing Americans into “us” and “them”, happy to rule with 50.1% of the vote. Much of what has happened this past decade was the path we chose.

The law of attraction suggests what we think is what we’ll attract into our lives. Positive thoughts attract positive results and a negative attitude will attract negative consequences. And so it does.

I’d suggest it is possible to have the law of attraction work on a national scale too. When a society embraces negativity, rancor, acrimony and disharmony, what are we to expect of the results? The consequences won’t appear immediately, but in time all the collective bad karma will result in blowback. Like an economic collapse.

Hi Arlene,
The Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit failed. All the elements of the carefully laid out plan were in place, but by chance it didn’t work. Good luck for America. A benefit of the failed attempt is America tightening its security procedures, a very good thing. Curious how this horrible event was only prevented by mere chance. Christians could say God has protected America on that Christmas Day. And maybe God has returned His protective blessing to America once again under President Obama. But America blessed under Obama…that couldn’t happen, could it?
Dave

Allow me to correct you; the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America were orchestrated by the enemy within. Furthermore, there were no planes on 911, only SFX images broadcast to a confused public.

A belief is but secondhand information – and that is what the public was given on 911, by a news organ which is today our enemy’s central most powerful weapon used against us.

Lest you pass judgement without having all the facts, please take a moment to watch September Clues. I think it will help open your eyes to the fraud behind 911, an event which set the entire world upon a collision course with disaster.

The thing about a conservative is the fact that thay want to conserv everything god tells us to help the poor and needy not to conserv want we have for are selvs. It is true that alote of chistions are not realy chistions thay use this statas to make themselfs look better in sisioty. one of the main so cald problems right now is the fact that obma is not a christion( a lot of people are upset about that.) So in the past presedents or people in office state or pretended to be christons.People in sisioty use this too. I think out of everyone in America who states to be a christion only about 1/5 of them are. God did not abandon amarica we or bush did with greed.(Spelling Sucks sorry)

Hi Nichole,
I remember just when the war in Iraq was starting (shock and awe!) and I was sitting in a bar with my best friend and we overheard some young men sitting next to us cheering on the war like it was a sporting event. I thought to myself, they don’t understand. War is always an evil thing, sometimes necessary, but still evil. A necessary evil is a burden to bear. Embracing an unnecessary war is just evil. It seems too many people react without thinking things through. My point is that God does not abandon anybody, we bring misfortune on ourselves. We all need a bit more thoughtfulness.
Dave